1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for detecting a fouled air filter in a computer equipment enclosure.
2. Description of Related Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
As computer systems today are put to use in environments with high levels of airborne particulate materials, heat sinks and other electronic devices within computer enclosures collect such materials. This creates a situation where air flow can become limited, subjecting electronic components within the enclosure to reach temperatures beyond their thermal limits, causing malfunctions. To mitigate this problem, air filters may be added to the enclosure such that the airborne particulate materials are filtered from airflow entering the enclosure, reducing the collection of the materials on components within the enclosure.
Air filters, however, become fouled over time due to collection of the filtered particulate materials and must be replaced or cleaned. A fouled air filter reduces the amount of airflow into the enclosure and the amount of cooling that is provided by such airflow. In such computer enclosures today, aside from physical visual inspection of an air filter, there is no cost effective, efficient method of detecting a fouled air filter.